Never in all my life have I run into so many experiences dealing with horribly ignorant human beings. I need to get out of rural America because it is literally making me explode. I will continue with the examples...

In a fit of anger, my brother's boss called him a "lazy fag." Who does that? Really? Are we still at that point to use deragatory slams? I feel like I try to give white trash the benefit of the doubt, but I'm starting to think that I'm being way too kind (as will also be shown by these further examples).

I find out a man was picked up and had his car impounded for being an illegal immigrant. The thing was he was at the laundromat and his wife and two kids were left clotheless because he and the car were being held in Cleveland. He is basically waiting to be deported because the SOB's known as the INS have been insanely ridiculous at targeting such individuals. They've been even crashing into Mexican Restaurants to check people's visas and green cards.

Then today at church somebody made a comment about how they ended up in a part of Columbus and everyone was black and what a shock that was. PLEASE! Welcome to the 21st century. There are different ethnicities living within this country who do come from other continents than Europe (and western Europe for that matter). And just because they are black and from the city does NOT mean they are part of a gang.

Then there's always th erandom tweens/teens that call things "gay" as a duragatory word. "That's so gay, this game is so gay, etc. etc." I HATE that with an undying passion. I also hated when I was in middle school and people were using the term "Jew" similarly. How would it make you feel to be singled out and told that a name you identify with now is synonymous with "stupid" or "bad." Needless to say, they sat out the remainder of the game.

Then, to top this WONDERFUL time off, a very good friend of mine who happens to be Hispanic just got pulled over for driving too slowly down a two lane country road (i.e. racial profiling). My dad tried to go talk to the officer since my friend didn't have papers, but the officer had already had him talk to Homeland Security on the phone, and my friend, being an honest individual, admitted to being illegal. So now he's being held at the county jail until 3 pm on Monday when he'll either be moved to Detroit or Cleveland to more than likely await deportation. My dad came home and got my mom to go tell his mom the whole situation. My dad is going to be seeking legal action on this case though, so prayers would be helpful that it all turns out ok. My friend and his mom are very dedicated Christians and I'm sure would appreciate the prayer.

I'm just tired of this. I'm tired of ignorant people. Something needs to be done about the lack of education of people in this country.

I was supposed to go running this morning for a long run with my dad before it got too hot, but I have shin splints. They hadn't been bad up until now, but today I just couldn't run at all. I mean, we went out for a few miles, maybe 3 or so. I even had my mom wrap it with some tape prior to leaving, but it hurt so bad anyway. The thing that stinks is that I know I'm capable of running so much stronger than I did today, but because of this injury now I can't. I wasn't smart about it though. It's been bothering me for about a week now and I only iced it once. I tried stretching some more, but I knew that wouldn't really do much. I do have to run through it, but I HAVE to start taking care of it.

This kind of is symbolic of my life in general right now. I tried running through a lot of stuff and hadn't been taking the necessary steps to truly help it. I had been struggling and rather than seek out what I really needed (more time with God or really any time with God, being proactive to reaching out to those who can help me, etc, etc). I knew what I needed to do, but I chose to just try to run through it, thinking it would just get better. I know better, kind of like I know better with the shin splints too, but I tried to just barrel on through it. It's time to stop. It's time to take care of this stuff. Like shin splints, you have to just kind of run through them, but take care of them at the same time. God isn't calling me to just stop my life, life goes on, but I need to start taking care of myself in the ways that He wants me to. God is good and I'm really excited to see what He's got in store for me, a lot of exciting things have been happening, but I'll talk about some of that stuff at another time. For now I just need to focus on healing both my physical, and spiritual injuries.